| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: to the village, and toodle-kiyi along the ringing ice, heads
down and tails up, while Kotuko struck up the "An-gutivaun
tai-na tau-na-ne taina" (The Song of the Returning Hunter),
and voices hailed him from house to house under all that dim,
star-littern sky.
When Kotuko the dog came to his full growth he enjoyed himself
too. He fought his way up the team steadily, fight after fight,
till one fine evening, over their food, he tackled the big,
black leader (Kotuko the boy saw fair play), and made second dog
of him, as they say. So he was promoted to the long thong of the
leading dog, running five feet in advance of all the others:
The Second Jungle Book |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from To-morrow by Joseph Conrad: waiting for. It is YOU who come to-morrow."
He murmured. "Oh! It's me!" blankly, and
they seemed to become breathless together. Ap-
parently he was pondering over what he had heard;
then, without irritation, but evidently perplexed,
he said: "I don't understand. I hadn't written or
anything. It's my chum who saw the paper and
told me--this very morning. . . . Eh? what?"
He bent his ear; she whispered rapidly, and he
listened for a while, muttering the words "yes"
and "I see" at times. Then, "But why won't to-
To-morrow |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: what he wants? I am Ned the sexton, replies he, and come to know
whether the Doctor left any orders for a funeral sermon, and
where he is to be laid, and whether his grave is to be plain or
bricked? Why, sirrah, says I, you know me well enough; you know I
am not dead, and how dare you affront me in this manner?
Alack-a-day, replies the fellow, why 'tis in print, and the whole
town knows you are dead; why, there's Mr. White the joiner is but
fitting screws to your coffin, he'll be here with it in an
instant: he was afraid you would have wanted it before this time.
Sirrah, Sirrah, says I, you shall know tomorrow to your cost,
that I am alive, and alive like to be. Why, 'tis strange, sir,
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Z. Marcas by Honore de Balzac: and science alike were in vain. By the month of January, 1838, Marcas
himself felt that he had but a few days to live.
The man whose soul and brain he had been for six months never even
sent to inquire after him. Marcas expressed the greatest contempt for
the Government; he seemed to doubt what the fate of France might be,
and it was this doubt that had made him ill. He had, he thought,
detected treason in the heart of power, not tangible, seizable
treason, the result of facts, but the treason of a system, the
subordination of national interests to selfish ends. His belief in the
degradation of the country was enough to aggravate his complaint.
I myself was witness to the proposals made to him by one of the
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